Disney Is Changing the Pirates of the Caribbean Ride & Fans Have Strong Feelings

Disneyland is removing the wench auction from the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. The change will take place next year, and will also be done for the rides at Walt Disney World in Florida and Disneyland Paris.

As D23 reported, the redheaded woman currently featured in the auction will be given a new role, "beginning in 2018, after an already-planned refurbishment, the redhead is trading her fashionable bonnet for a pirate's hat. Guests will now see her joining the pirates' ranks and helping the locals 'unload' their valuables at the Mercado auction."

"Our team thought long and hard about how best to update this scene. Given the redhead has long been a fan favorite, we wanted to keep her as a pivotal part of the story, so we made her a plundering pirate! We think this keeps to the original vision of the attraction as envisioned by Marc Davis, X Atencio, and the other Disney Legends who first brought this classic to life."

Here's a look at the new concept art:

As The Hollywood Reporter noted, this isn't the first change for the ride -- pirate men chasing women was previously changed to the men chasing the women to get the food they have on trays. FYI, Disneyland Paris is also getting an exclusive new scene featuring Captain Barbossa in his debut, taking inspiration from the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies. Check out his concept art at the Disney Parks Blog.

Because people are people, and people tend to get extreme about change, the auction change was met with a strong reaction online:

The pirates of the Caribbean will now treat females better than Johnny Depp does in real life .